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Looking Past the “M”

By Cody “Micajah” Bye

July 9, 2007 - The individuals that read the information located here at Ten Ton Hammer are typically adults. They read the intellectually stimulating material that the Ten Ton Hammer Network staff provides, and in turn respond with equally energetic and well-spoken comments. By reading through the forums, you’ll find many more thought provoking posts than you might on, let’s say, the WoW official message boards. With that in mind, I would like to present you with my editorial on “Looking Past the ‘M’”, which takes a hard look at why we – as adults – should ignore the letter “M” that’s going to be undoubtedly branded on the front of the Age of Conan box..

Age of Conan will feature realitically violent scenes.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, which is being developed by Funcom, has always been caught in the stigma of the “M”, or, in other words, the mature rating that the developers have been striving for from the beginning of their development cycle. Staying true to Robert E. Howard’s Conan lore has always been at the forefront of Funcom’s mind, which means risqué situations, foul language, and a just a smidgen of gory violence. Thus, the developers at Funcom pushed hard to reach the boundaries of the “M” rating, doing as much as the ESRB would let them get away with. In our interview with Jorgen at GDC, he even made mention that they would alter the game to be as explicit as possible to fit the limitations of whatever geographic area that they happen to be in.

Since the mature rating – or the mention of mature gameplay – was hit upon so early and often in the initial development of the game, it seems like many individuals have gotten caught up in the fact that the game is going to be rated “M”. Instead of looking at Age of Conan as a game with a refreshingly new combat system, the potential for tremendous PvP, or a title with a tremendous license backing it, all gamers talk about is how much violence will be in the game. Everyone seems to be caught up in this “whirlwind of blood”, as if that feature along will make or break the game.

Whenever I talk to my *adult* friends about Age of Conan, they’ll smile and nod as I rant and rave about the game, yet when I finish they simple say, “I don’t know, the game just doesn’t look like my cup of tea. I’m not into the whole massacring the village and raping the women sort of thing.” Each time I hear that response, I’m taken a bit aback.

Some people are turning away from Conan...not because its a bad game but because they can't see past the violence.

“Why do you think the games all about violence and adult content?” I ask. “There’s so much more that you’re not seeing, like the amazing quest system or the advanced AI programming they’ve implemented into the game! Are you seriously going to get caught up in the outer façade and not look at the quality of game underneath?”

And in many cases, it seems to be that way. Although this latest batch of previews didn’t harp on the “visceral nature” or “scantily clad women” as much , many of the previews did go into large diatribes about the fatality system and how every so often you’ll kill an opponent with a vicious fatality-type move. Even Jeff Woleslagle was guilty of overtly discussing the “rotting corpses” and “scantily clad women” in his preview, but he made up for it with this comment concerning the games artwork:

“One aspect of Age of Conan that I feel gets lost in the ecstatic descriptions of gore and maiming is raw beauty of the setting, character models, and animations. The palette is earthy and expertly chosen, and the art direction is neither strictly photo-realistic or caricatured, setting the tone squarely on dystopian and dangerous, yet strangely familiar and non-jarring enough that long periods of playtime wouldn't become visually wearisome.”

If you look throughout the ‘net, there are numerous examples of reporters discussing the overt violence and gore in Age of Conan. It’s littered all across the Internet. I’ve even written about the impact mature MMOGs will have on the video game industry . And this inherent violence will probably cause some gamers to think twice before purchasing Age of Conan.  

However, the pending mature rating has very little to do with the game itself. It is true that having a mature rating will allow the developers to include more gore, flesh, and language than is acceptable in games rated “Teen”, but how will this affect the way the actual game is played?

Is Age of Conan worse than any network TV show with a TV-14 rating?

In reality, if you look past the blood and the gore and the variety of new gameplay systems, Age of Conan is merely a unique venture into the fantasy MMORPG marketplace. Yes, they have a strong license in Conan. Yes, they have done right in staying close to the material presented in the Robert E. Howard stories. But is what you see on screen that much different than what exists in standard MMOGs today? When you log into the World of Warcraft, you know that you’re going to be killing monsters, beasts, and even humanoids. There may not be a lot of blood, but you know what you’re doing. It’s not “defeating” monsters. It’s killing them.

Or even in modern media? When you turn on your TV at night, what shows are spattered across the airwaves? On any given evening, you might find CSI, Law & Order, or any other low enforcement show on your local television stations. All of these shows often feature sex, violence, and desiccated corpses, but you’ll almost never see them with a rating over TV14. Yet when it comes to violence and sex in Age of Conan, people turn squeamish.

Violence aside, I believe Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures should receive appropriate amounts of attention when it is released to the public. If you’re an adult gamer, I urge you to look past the violence and sex to see what sort of gameplay Age of Conan actually promises. You may find that your initial assumption about the game was wrong.

Do you agree with Cody? Disagree? Let us know by emailing us or dropping by the forums!

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